The room was completely moldy, musty, and the bed was damp. The air was so stale that it was difficult to breathe. The person at the reception was extremely unfriendly. If you have a pickup from the airport, you have to pay an extra fee for every minute the flight is delayed. The money is then demanded quite aggressively. The hotel's responses to reviews are also very unprofessional.

This property misleads customers by showcasing upgraded rooms in their pictures to sell the lower-tier ones. Upon arrival, I encountered several issues:
Humid Air: The atmosphere in the room was uncomfortably humid.
Non-Working AC: The air conditioning unit was non-functional.
Loud Ventilator: The ventilation system was incredibly noisy.
Shower Problems: The water in the shower was stagnating and wouldn't run properly.
Renting a budget hotel doesn't exempt them from providing the services they advertise, such as functioning air conditioning. Disappointing experience overall.

For this price the experience has been amazing. We arrived pretty early and could immediately go to the room which was all we could ask for. We even got offered breakfast for that day and the next day without any additional charges. People were really friendly. The location is really nice. Everything is reachable by foot.
The bad rating is not justified in our opinion. Would go again.

Good hotel

Chambre très humide.
Dommage, le personnel est très sympa, le petit déjeuner est très bien mais la chambre est particulièrement humide, la salle de bain est restée mouillée tout notre séjour.
Peut-être en saison sèche mais pas sûr.

The hotel is reasonable in prices , not recommended to book via Internet App,

it's much more better dealing face to face with staff over there , we have spent Eid Vacation over there , the service is okay, breakfast was fresh & nice even there's no options to choose, the atmosphere is good, the staff trying to make you feel as home ,

What I most like , good price , safe , a hotel to sleep , so friendly staff , hotel place is so near to everything in stone town .

What I feel the place is missing ,a restaurant or at least coffee to be open 24 hours , a safe in each room , more cleaning service , more large space rooms , more organized staff.

If Inshallah will Visit Zanzibar's, I would go directly to the same hotel as it fits my needs.

Nous y avons passé une nuit en aout 2022 à la fin de notre périple sur Zanzibar/Pemba/
Bel hotel, situé dans une rue calme en face d'un parc; très belle décoration arabe, chaque chambre a un style particulier, très belle salle de bain
Par contre préférez les chambres à l'étage car pas mal de passage pour les chambres du rez de chaussé
le jardin n'était malheureusement pas accessible, abandonné
il manque un espace ou pouvoir se poser et prendre un café
nous n'avons pas pu prendre de petit déjeuner car notre vol était très tôt le matin

Très bon hotel, bien situé à proximité du centre ville et des lieux à visiter. De nombreux restaurants et plein de boutiques. Chambre confortable avec une belle salle de bain. Bon petit déjeuner savoureux et copieux. Personnel charmant

Ich war 2nächte dort bevor meine Abreise war. Ich war super begeistert. Sehr freundliches Personal, leckeres Frühstück, schöne u saubere Zimmer. Kann ich nur empfehlen.

The place was good. The service was good and their breakfast was very nice. And the workers are friendly

Unfortunately the hotel was not meeting minimum requirements to be on booking. Rooms were dirty and with mold. We didn't want to continue our staying at a hotel, but they didn't agree for refund. We booked twin room with private bathroom, however we received double bedroom with shared bathroom. Lamps located close to bed were not working so we have to walking in dark to turn on the lights. In the room was no wifi. Next day when we request to refund and try cancel the staying, we were offered only to change a room. This time it was twin room, but without air conditioner working. Towels were old and we didn't feel comfortable to use them.
When we wanted to make complaint on the first day, we couldn't find any staff on duty. Only one Gardener the didn't speak English and didn't call anyone. Friend of mine checked out the same day however she paid for all staying. No one gave any dollar of discount, even i asked.

I came at the hotel at the said time and day and nobody was there - no reception (the door was open). I waited 30 minutes, sent an email, had to find another hotel urgently. I complained to Booking then I received a very agressive email from the hotel saying that I am a liar. Bad customer care.

La grande taille de la chambre
la propreté de celle-ci + la salle de bain
Climatisation dans la chmabre très appréciée.
La très bonne situation géographique par rapport au centre ville de Stone Town.

Je recommande cet établissement si vous souhaitez, comme nous, visiter la ville.
Tout se fait très bien, à pieds.

Időutazás ❤️ Csodálatos hely, nagyon régi, hatalmas bútorokkal. Imádtam! Varázslatos! A személyzet is nagyon aranyos. A reggeli kitűnő, ajánlom annak, aki tényleg a hely miatt megy, és nem egy luxus hotelben akarja eltölteni az időt ????

Nice place

Traditional

Nice place for a budget stay. Convenient for exploring stone town. A little renovation here and there will make it pretty though. Loved their service! I recommend this for back packers.

WARNUNG! Nie wieder Hiliki House!

Wir waren vom 22.12 - 24.12.2022 im „Hiliki House Retro“. Beide Häuser stehen nebeneinander und gehören zusammen.

Die Fotos des Hiliki House auf booking und Google sind irreführend und veraltet. Der tatsächliche Zustand weicht wegen fehlender Instandhaltung stark ab:

Unser Zimmer war dunkel, feucht und roch modrig (wie das gesamte Hiliki House Retro). Das Mückennetz und die Handtücher hatten faustgroße Löcher.

Der Höhepunkt unseres geplanten 4 tägigen Aufenthalts vom 22. Dezember bis 26. Dezember war aber, dass wir nach 2 Tagen am 24. Dezember auf die Straße gesetzt worden sind.

Wir haben vor Ort an der Rezeption gebucht und erhielten die Bestätigung für ein Zimmer über 4 Nächte. 50% des Zimmerpreises wurde im Voraus bezahlt. Am 2. Tag kam der selbe Mitarbeiter Suleiman nachmittags beiläufig auf uns zu, um uns mitzuteilen, dass wir am nächsten Morgen das Haus verlassen müssen. Die beiläufige Begründung lautete: „Das Hiliki House sei online überbucht und wir müssten daher gehen. Er könne nichts machen, der Besitzer hat entschieden.

Einziger Lichtblick sind das Frühstück und die dafür zuständige, sehr nette Dame. Auch der Nachtportier Abdulla war sehr darum bemüht uns eine alternative Bleibe zu suchen.

It was much, much more than I expected. The room is amazing for the price. Two people get a room, double bed, mosquito net, fan and we also had air conditioning, plus a delicious fruit, bread, juice, coffee and omelette breakfast. Even a private bathroom with shower and a toilet. How much was all this?

Twenty one dollars. Yes, you heard correctly. 21 US DOLLARS. 10.5 dollars per person. Many hostels sell one bed in a large shared bunkbed room.

The location is 5 min walk from city center and so nice and quiet at night, calm and safe neighbourhood. Also close to mnazi mmoja if you're doing work there.

Staff was very nice, especially the woman who served us breakfast. If I had a hotel I would have tried to hire her. But I don't, because my hotel fund is only 21 usd.

Many bad reviews because of earlier overbooking, send them a message to confirm your booking if this makes you anxious.

The large house that our room was in looked very old and lives up to its name, lots of old furniture. There is even a "backpacker" style rooftop terrace on the house that is nice and relaxed and a good way to meet other traveller's if you're into that.

Старенький отэль, есть свой колорит, но ремонт необходим, особенно ванных комнат

Schimmel im Zimmer, unsere Wäsche hat für den Rest des Urlaubs gestunken.

Achtung: Bezahlen Sie auf keinen Fall vor Ort bzw. lassen Sie sich in jedem Fall eine Quittung ausstellen. Nachdem wir vor Ort bezahlt haben, wurde zusätzlich unsere VISA Karte belastet. Das Management der Unterkunft verhält sich höchst unkooperativ und unfreundlich.

Fahren Sie besser direkt in einen anderen Teil der Insel.

Очень уютное место, радушные хозяева, хорошо готовят

All'inizio avevo paura che fosse una truffa, visto le altre recensioni, ma difatto non lo era e voglio dare delle informazioni ai lettori scettici.
- Retro è gestito dallo stesso proprietario dell'Hiliki House, e condividono la reception e la sala colazioni, ma le camere di Retro sono nell edificio a fianco.
- Lo staff è gentilissimo, soprattutto il signore che ci ha aspettate fino ad 4 di notte per il chek - in, la struttura è disponibile tutte le 24 ore
- Le camere rispecchiano al 100% quello per cui ho pagato, niente di più niente di meno, essendo modico il prezzo non ci si può aspettare un resort extra lusso, ma la camera, nonostante fosse umile e presentasse delle finiture vecchie, era ordinata, pulita (pulizia giornaliera) ed il letto King size molto comodo, oltre ad un bagno privato con doccia grande.
In fin dei conti l hotel non è per niente male ed è coerente al prezzo.
Non so come si sono svolte le faccende di chi è stato truffato, ma io prenotando con booking non ho avuto problemi.
Unica pecca è il rumore esterno, noi abbiamo usato i tappi per le orecchie.

Iliki Hotel (RETRO Hotel)
We have traveled to almost every continent for over 14 years. We've stayed in over a hundred hotels and without a doubt this was THE WORST HOTEL we've stayed at.
I will tell you about our bad experience at this hotel.
After fifteen hours of travel, we landed in Zanzibar. We collected the suitcase, and our RETRO HOTEL, supposedly, had booked with us, for 12 dollars, to make the transfer from the Airport to the Hotel, but no one showed up. We had to take a taxi to get to the Hotel.
We stayed 3 nights at the Retro Hotel, which seems to me to be in partnership with Hiliki Hotel. We slept at the Retro Hotel and had breakfast at the Hiliki Hotel.
First, they put us in a completely dirty and ruined room, with broken windows, mosquito nets torn and with large openings, mold and rust in the bathroom and with the water heater over the toilet dripping over us.
When we were already taking a shower and with everything already installed, they came knocking on our door saying that we had to change rooms.
Unfortunately when we got to the second room it was even worse than the first.
We had a big spider welcoming us into the room. I started looking for where this spider came from, and I noticed that the clothes closet and under the clothes were full of cobwebs. So that was one of many spiders that were in the room, in addition to the decaying state of the whole room!
The staff is not very friendly. At breakfast, the staff doesn't understand English very well On the hotel's website it says there is internet in the room and it's not true. In our room there was no internet access. There is internet only on the top floor.
WARNING: The photos they put of the rooms on the internet are completely misleading. The photos of the rooms posted on the internet are quite appealing, but in fact the rooms are in a very bad condition. It was a depressing stay at this hotel.
It was really bad.
This was our experience. The purpose of this outburst is not to harm the hotel, but rather that you read it and improve it so that the next guests have a better stay than ours.

Albergo d'appoggio quando si fa il safari nel Serengeti, Ngorongoro e Lago di Manyara. Hanno il necessario per pernottare e ripartire. Personale gentile e disponibile. Ha un bellissimo giardino curato molto bene. Magari in futuro avrà anche una palestra, che adesso è in allestimento. Ottimo il rapporto qualità prezzo.

B&B molto ben posizionato nel centro storico di Stone Town, a pochi passi dai mercati e dalle zone storiche. La Struttura e' carina, ma senza ascensore ovviamente. Quindi con le valigie pesanti e' sicuramente scomodo salire al primo piano. Altra pecca e' la cucina al piano terra e la sala colazione al piano primo, vicino alle camere...il servizio diventa lento e faticoso...diciamo con tempi dilatati. Ma se non avete fretta non e' un problema.

ATTENTION A L'ARNAQUE. En arrivant, on nous dit que l'hôtel est soit disant complet et on nous propose un relogement dans un autre hôtel miteux, à la limite de l'insalubrité. L'expérience a été vécue par d'autre touristes, ne réservez surtout pas dans cet hôtel, vous allez devoir vous reloger en urgence ailleurs.

Cuidado es un timo! Las fotos no corresponden a la realidad. Por mi experiencia es el peor hotel donde he dormido nunca. El hombre nos dijo que el hotel estaba lleno, pero que tenía otra habitaciones en un edificio a diez minutos andando. Al llegar la recepción daba ya un poco de asco. Pero no era lo peor el drama empezó al llegar a las habitaciones. El suelo mas sucio que he visto jamas, el baño daba miedo de solo mirarlo, la última vez que se limpió aun no existía internet. Las camas eran un drama, estaban sucias y con sabanas rotas. Un armario de ikea, sin puertas que daba miedo tocar y por ultimo unas paredes llenas de humedades, manchas y mal pintada. Pero no podemos olvidar otros inconvenientes si queréis descansar, el hotel da a una calle con discoteca yo fui un lunes asi que tuve suerte y sobre las 3 cerró, por desgracia la fiesta continuó en el hotel y se escucha todo, incluso las conversaciones a gritos que se pegaba el de recepción con los huéspedes que volvían de fiesta. Además de esto habitaciones estaban muy mal aisladas lumínicamente, la puerta de la habitación tenia una cristalera encima por donde entraba la luz del pasillo. Lo mismo pasaba con las ventanas, pero la luz en este caso venían de la calle. En resumen un timo.

Es una estafa. Te dicen que está todo lleno y luego te llevan a otro hotel mucho peor.

Horrible.
Llegamos al hotel con nuestra reserva y nos dijeron que estaba lleno y nos llevaron a otro supuestamente vinculado.
Estaba sucio, no nos dieron toallas porque había llovido y no tenían secas.
Las habitaciones sucias y con olor desagradable , el baño se inundó en una de ellas al usar la ducha ( se salía el agua por otro lado).
En definitiva no sirve ni para pasar una noche rápida.